Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

Etymologies

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Examples

I am not at all sure — convinced, certain, persuaded — that creative-writing courses are a good idea unless they prevent people from writing sentences like this one, where adjectives — useful, helpful, intensely descriptive words — are stacked upon one another as Pelion used to be piled upon Ossa.

[T] here are many examples of the sublime which are independent of passion, such as the daring words of Homer with regard to the Aloadae, to take one out of numberless instances, "Yea, Ossa in fury they strove to upheave on Olympus on high,/With forest-clad Pelion above, that thence they might step to the sky."

This tale of two giants heaping Mounts Ossa, Pelion and Olympus one atop the other in order to storm the Heavens -- which I can't help comparing to the SFX spectacle of Magneto in X-Men 3, ripping up the Golden Gate Bridge and using it to reach Alcatraz -- offers us a chimera, a breach of the laws of nature.

I am not at all sure -- convinced, certain, persuaded -- that creative-writing courses are a good idea unless they prevent people from writing sentences like this one, where adjectives -- useful, helpful, intensely descriptive words -- are stacked upon one another as Pelion used to be piled upon Ossa.